The Mole PeopleDirector: Virgil W. Vogel
Theatrical Release Date: December 22nd, 1956
As a 13-year-old, I liked this low-budget
Universal-International production (1956) about ancient
Sumerians, but older people told me it was bad and, roughly a
decade later, lots of others decided it was camp.

TarantulaDirector: Jack Arnolds
Theatrical Release Date: December 14th, 1955
This
50's sci-fi staple has all the expected clichés... from the small isolated town
(Desert Rock in rural Arizona) to the skeptical Sheriff (Nestor Paiva) - from
the suspicious young doctor (John Agar) linked to the ultra feminine heroine
(Mara Corday). Plus where would we be without the loner experimenting professor
(Leo G. Carroll) whose scientific, but well meaning, intrusion in nature's
scheme produces the titled monster. The effects are better than average as the
Tarantula was an actual spider manipulated on miniature sets with air jets. This
is hokey of course, but it is still fabulous stuff - director Arnold, who
brought us
The Incredible Shrinking Man among many others, really had these
B-movies nailed. The script is competent and the acting believable enough. Ohh...
and yes that Jet Squadron Leader is a young Clint Eastwood. How could we
not recommend this to fill space on my DVD shelves with such classics as 'This
Island Earth' (where Arnold did much of the re-shooting) and
'Creature from the Black Lagoon' (1954)?

The Incredible Shrinking ManDirector: Jack Arnold
Theatrical Release Date: February 22nd, 1957I was continuing
to shrink, to become... what? The infinitesimal? What was I?
Still a human being? Or was I the man of the future? If there
were other bursts of radiation, other clouds drifting across
seas and continents, would other beings follow me into this vast
new world..."

When Grant Williams is subjected to a radioactive mist while on holiday with
his wife, he falls ill and then starts to shrink. It's a simple premise, but
the result is a masterpiece of the science-fiction genre that plays to the
human emotion of the situation rather than overwhelming the audience with
special effects. First his wife begins to order him around, then, as he gets
inexorably smaller, the household cat becomes a savage predator, a splash of
water threatens to destroy him and he fights to the death against a spider
before advancing to the next stage in his strange and lonely existence.
Director Arnold came to science fiction from a background of
documentary-making (he later moved again, to comedies), and his sparse
direction allows the tension to build naturally so that the terror and
poignancy of the story work their way into the audience's brain without being
forced. A total classic.

The Monolith MonstersDirector: John Sherwood
Theatrical Release Date: December 10th, 1957
The original 'rocky horror': a Jack Arnold-originated, quite
effective Universal sci-fi paranoia yarn featuring the
alien-induced metamorphosis of men to stone, and a subsequent
stampede of towering crystal structures across small-town
America. Grant Williams (The Incredible Shrinking Man) is again
dwarfed by his adversaries, though he plays the only possible
hero: a geologist.

Monster on the Campus Director: Jack Arnold
Theatrical Release Date: December 17th, 1958
'Is this fish really one million years old?' asks Troy Donahue,
pointing at the new specimen at Professor Donald Blake's lab. It
sure is, and what's more, if you get infected then you revert to
primitive instinctual behavior. With that in mind, Jack Arnold's
hijacking of the Wolf Man plot onto a campus terror tale needs
all his talent for making the incredible seem possible: giant
dragonflies and million-year-old fish don't quite look so
strange as the '50s finned creatures known as automobiles that
glide down the campus and suburban avenues.

The 5 films are
spread over 3 single-sided discs - 2 dual-layered and 1 single layered. They are encoded in the NTSC standard
for region
1. All are
progressively transferred and
have trailers. Each have original audio and
optional English, or French, subtitles.

I don't think we need to do extensive comparisons to the PAL
counterparts that we have already reviewed (HERE
and
HERE) - the captures below (matched by Gregory! - thanks) indicate
the image quality is virtually the same with little to gripe about. The
PAL have far more subtitle and DUB options, but no trailers. They look
very good with Monsters on the Campus looking the best followed
closely by Monolith Monsters and Tarantula. There is some
digital noise in The Incredible Shrinking Man and even less so in
The Mole People. Minimal damage and decent contrast help round
out these transfers as well above-average (considering the age of the
films).

No extras save the theatrical trailers for each - they
are quite a hoot in their own right.

This package is a real
cracker - at a great price (under $20.00). I'd love to see a 'Jack
Arnold Boxset' one day - loaded with extras and commentaries. If
these titles appeal to you then we can vouch that this DVD collection is
fun, nostalgic cinema that we
strongly recommend! out
of

NOTE: This edition of The Incredible Shrinking Man,
compared to the other movies in this collection, has serious grain
issues, poor sharpness, as well inconsistent and pointlessly flat
contrast in many scenes (where dark areas revert to black far too
easily) even before Scott winds up in the cellar. Moreover, except for
exterior scenes in the opening segments of The Mole People, none of the
other movies exhibit any concerns to speak of re sharpness, grain or
contrast – certainly nothing remotely on the order of TISM. The Region 2
(Universal/UK) is marginally, though noticeably better in all respects
than the R1 edition in the Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection, and makes for a
more agreeable viewing experience if you're going to watch the entire
movie instead of a few isolated frames.

Judging these discs on a 7-foot wide screen via a 3-LCD 720p projector
on a ten point scale, I would give this new R1 of TISM 4 points, the R2
edition closer to 5; Mole People (except, as noted, for some of the
exterior scenes) getting on to 6; Tarantula a skosh better, and The
Monolith Monsters and Monster on the Campus approaching 7. In short, we
both placed the films in about the same order, but the differences in
quality between TISM and all the other films was monstrous when viewed
on a large screen. (Thanks Leonard!)